Posted on 03/16/2012 2:48:58 PM PDT by gordonmcdowell
All Apple iOS devices (iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch) contain heavy rare earth elements.
Obama recently filed suit against China regarding abuse of their heavy rare earths monopoly. China restricts and taxes rare earth exports, making it more attractive to manufactures to relocate inside China.
The NYTimes article never mentioned REEs (Rare Earth Elements).
Only light rare earths are available in USA, it is the heavy that are needed. While it may not be the only factor in Apple's mind when constructing iPads with Foxconn in China, it must be a consideration.
...is a mashup between Obama's announcement of WTO action, and commentary by Jim Kennedy arguing the heavy REEs are already available in USA waste streams and tailing ponds. It is regulation around thorium which blocks heavy REE refining: thorium would drop out, then someone's stuck with a (barely) radioactive substance. (Barely radioactive.
Belated WTO action may offer short-term relief, but the only way for high-tech manufacturing to flourish again is a domestic supply of heavy REE. Therefore the supposed danger of thorium needs to be re-examined. Walking around with a lump of thorium in your pocket is like eating a banana (in terms of radiation exposure). Thorium has a half-life of 14 billion years... that means it is extremely stable. But because it is ever-so-slightly radioactive, but isn't a banana or potato chip, it is a regulated substance and no one wants the liability of dealing with it.
Beyond iOS manufacture, thorium can be consumed as an energy resource in a Thorium Molten-Salt Reactor.
Here Kirk Sorensen reviews WHY Th-MSR (LFTR) was abandoned in favor of light water reactors (LWR). Politics, and a cold-war need for weapons material. Since then, we've seen technology lock in, just as achieved by VHS, QWERTY and Microsoft Windows.
Video - The Thorium Molten-Salt Reactor: Why Didn't This Happen? http://youtu.be/bbyr7jZOllI
In particular, at 31m18s, Kirk argues for Th-MSR as a means of powering data centers, contrasting it with a "renewable" solution's cost & environmental impact.
So whether it is enabling domestic iOS manufacture, or hosting iCloud servers with inexpensive electricity: deregulating the storage, buying & selling of thorium could ultimately secure domestic Apple jobs beyond iOS app development.
(I know iCloud servers are in Maiden California, but that may be required for latency and USA's strong IP protection. Rising electricity costs should still be a concern going forward.)
I helped edit a video...
Video - Thorium Petition - Secure our Energy & High-Tech Independence! http://youtu.be/QIkqbxYdadg
...tied to Eric Meyer's recently launched we-the-people thorium petition.
...if you think this is an important issue, please consider signing. No matter what the administration's response, it will be an asset going forward with this issue. We do not need White House action on this for the petition to be successful. All we need is a response.
I am not 100% sure about this but... Heavy Rare Earth Elements, REE’s, are really not all that rare. What makes them difficult to produce is all of the difficult refining techniques and the radioactives that are usually associated with REE deposits.
As a disclosure I have some shares in a overseas company that is working on getting a REE mine and refinery complex going. If they manage to do it in a reasonable time there will be an alternative to China’s REE monopoly it currently holds.
Oh, horrors! I'm eating radioactive material for breakfast!
As we speak mines in the western USA and Australia are working on opening. Permitting I believe is done. The chinese screwed the pooch on this one, massive enviro damage, and now likely end game for their mines as enviro weenies make laws restricting importation of carelessly mined and refined rare earth elements. BTW Thorium is a REE and the best fuel for nuke reactors for power.
There he goes again wanting ‘those who have’ ... to share the wealth. WTO is acting like a world government. He can’t steal it legally (taxes) so he is trying to extort China which has a ‘China First’ policy. Our Lumumba (dead, notorious African tyrant) can’t push China around the way he does American Citizens.
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